


two dogs with almost no socialization and a language barrier become super close

by Shad0wFlight34



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Fluff, Language Barrier, Other, dog!runner five, dog!sam yao, excessive confusion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-09-21 02:49:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17035110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shad0wFlight34/pseuds/Shad0wFlight34
Summary: based of [http://zalia.tumblr.com/post/86858404839/the-adventures-of-sam-chow-international-pup-of] which is among the cutest fics I've ever come across. Apparently my rampant furry-ism is kicking up a storm, I've wanted to write dog!runner five for quite a while now, and this spoke to me.It's pretty much a rewrite of a few episodes under the premise of both Five and Sam being genetically altered dogs, a lot of exposition is in the notes.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I copied my notes from the zombies run discord and edited them, because I'm lazy.  
> so, basically the military has been genetically altering dogs for ages, but they've only really just started being used in the field when the zombie disease breaks out as they were still an experiment before then, most of these 'Special dogs' have somewhat altered vocal chords and a more pronounced dew claw to make them more capable of opening doors, etc.  
> all the ones currently in service have been raised and socialized with only a select few authorized personnel and aren't as used to the general population. they have a special language known as 'dogspeak' which is a wide range of gestures and sounds to communicate better and more complex ideas than you could glean from normal dog body language/vocalizations, barely anyone can interpret this language though as, you know, secret experiment and all. Special dogs can understand human speech  
> Padora Haze (I'm only on s3 of ZR so I don't know much about them sorry) also developed genetically altered dogs, but was more interested in developing dogs that can communicate properly and less on combative field dogs.
> 
> 5: has pretty much never interacted with a human outside of like 10-15 military personnel, was raised with other Special dogs, very well trained, very big, very curious. had a human handler when they were assigned to go to Abel, but he died very shortly before, and all the other dogs were already assigned elsewhere so they were sent alone.
> 
> sam: grown in a test tube, much more genetically altered to be more humanlike in terms of speech ability, trained less towards combat and more as an experiment to test the capabilities and limits of human-dog speech. almost no canine interaction, has only met like 4 other dogs, was never taught dogspeak.

Wolf lay on the passenger seat of the helicopter, paws tucked neatly under their chest staring out the window with faint interest. The pilot was speaking to them but they didn't pay her much mind, she wasn't trained to read their language, so there was no real way to respond to her prodding.

Wolf wondered faintly if the operative they were meant to be meeting up with would understand them, it was pretty uncommon even now when Special dogs were being more and more utilized in the field, so probably not.

They pricked their ears towards the sound of the new voice over the radio, whoever it was sounded vividly different from all the other humans they had met, there were breaks and pauses, and his tone was far less certain, a curiosity to someone who'd only ever lived among scientists, trainers, and military personal, all of whom knew exactly what they expected of you. Their tail thumped slightly at the idea of perhaps being able to meet the owner of that voice, would he smell as different as he sounded? Look different? How would his behavior differ?

Their thoughts were interrupted by the sound of gunfire, and Wolf sprung to their feet, ears pressed forwards and tail up as they glared at the tiny figure which had dropped the smaller weapon and was hoisting something Wolf had been trained to recognize. Wolf turned and made for the opening of the helicopter as the pilot incredulously questioned the presence of a rocket launcher, leaping from the side and feeling the wind ruffling their fur as they waited for their parachute to open, it took a moment more than expected but then burst open from the pack strapped firmly to their body.

Wolf hit the ground, letting their body roll with the fall as they'd been trained, before turning and biting down on the clips that attached them to the unwieldy chute until it unclipped, they could already smell the zombies and didn't need the nervous voice coming through on the radio affixed to their collar to tell them though the numbers he mentioned made them nervous.

They took off running.

 

* * *

 

 

Wolf had become used to Sam chattering away near their ear, he'd taken to calling them runner five, and something about it felt right. The name “Wolf” had somehow felt more clinical than any number. Each of the dogs in their batch had a 'W' name, previous batches had each had a letter. “Wolf” was just another command, a command to pay attention. “Five” somehow felt much more like a name, like when Sam said “Five” he was  _talking_  to them and not just making sure they were paying attention.

Five recognized the logo on the box, and grabbed it carefully between their teeth, as it was too bulky to easily tuck into the pack strapped to their back. Sam could see them on the camera now and he was chattering with Maxine, she was closer to what Five was used to, but still not the same, she didn't order, just ask, it was different. Runner Five was a much nicer thing to be, it seemed.

 

* * *

 

 

The hair along Five's spine was stiff with unease, they were used to being far faster than humans, but they'd been running a bit over two hours, more than their usual exercising periods, and they were beginning to slow, the fast zombie, the former runner Five, was catching up.

A human appeared from the trees, cutting across their path and grabbing their collar, urging them along towards the gates.

Five was used to gunshots, but their senses were suddenly assailed from the far less familiar stimuli of about a dozen humans leaning over them; all talking at once, some reaching to pet them, their smells making Five's head spin.

Even over the din of people talking, Five's ear picked out Sam's voice through the crowd, they looked up, trying to spot him, the crowd was moving as someone pushed through, Five leaned forward, tail raising slightly with enthusiasm, as a fluffy ginger dog pushed his way between the humans, and walked right up to them, tail wagging, “Hey! Good to see you in the flesh!” Five took a step back in shock, the voice had come straight form the dog's mouth, his lips contorting around the very human words. The dog, Sam presumably, had turned and was pushing himself against the humans' legs, telling them to step back and give Five some space, before turning back to them, tail still wagging,

“Welcome to Abel, runner Five! C'mon, let's go get Maxine to have a look at you, then you can go see Janine!”

Five hesitated a moment, still thrown, his voice was completely human, and Five was certain there were no Special dogs like that, at least they thought not, Five was the latest batch, and they couldn't get anywhere near that level of vocal control.

Still, after a moment, they hurried to his side and let him guide them away. He made a point of steering clear of all the humans to give them some space, he chattered idly as they walked together, and after a few minutes, Five managed to throw off their confusion.  _Ok, so he could speak perfect english, who cares, still a dog like me, I can just ask him. I wonder which lab he came from?_  Five let out a short yap to get his attention, then in Dogspeak asked, <hey, thank you for your help, you're a Special dog, right? Which generation are you? How did you end up here?>

Sam laughed, “what's with the look, Five? Oh, I guess that isn't your actual name, huh? What  _is_  your name, anyway?”

Five felt a bit miffed that he'd blown them off, but decided to ignore it and answer his questions instead, <I like Five better than the name I had, please keep calling me that.>

“Oh right, I forgot that, uh, normal dogs, can't talk. That's  _so_  weird, I mean, I just thought everyone could!”

Five snorted with indignation, <I  _just_  spoke, can't you understand dogspeak? And I'm not normal, you're like me, sort of, shouldn't you understand?>

“What's with all those weird pawlifts and grunts?” his voice was concerned now, “Wait, are you hurt? Oh, I  _knew_  that fall couldn't have been good for you, don't worry, Maxine will fix you right up, we're almost there!”

A nervous chill went up Five's spine, and they stepped in front of him, blocking his path, and, emphasizing each gesture with pauses between, they stared hard at him, <Can. You. Understand. Me.>

“Er, Five, what...? What are-”

Five circled him slowly, mind churning. He wasn't a Special dog, but he was clearly  _special_ , definitely genetically altered,  _not military though or at least probably not_ , Five sniffed his coat,  _a regular dog smell, a bit more clinical than normal, more so than just the smell of a dog raised in a lab,_ Sam was getting nervous, he was only about half their height and without Five's more muscular physique,  _not a breed seen among the usual test dogs, too young to be a part of the older batches, more vocally advanced too._ Five peered at his front paws,  _dew claw too short for the Special dogs, too._ They'd unintentionally backed him into a corner, pushing their nose right against his to smell his breath,  _ugh, that's nasty, like..._ really  _salty meat, but not quite meat. I think I smelt it on one of the scientists breaths once, can he only eat people food?_

Five was snapped back into reality by Sam whining nervously, “I'm sorry, please stop glaring at me! I'll, uh...” his tail was tucked firmly between his legs and his ears were pressed back, Five backed away, taken aback.

There  _were_  puppies early on that acted like that in Five's little pack, but they had been removed from the others to be put in less aggression-oriented factions, so that only the most domineering personalities remained, it had been forever since Five had come across a dog that would cower rather than stand up for itself, <I'm sorry, I got carried away, I wasn't going to hurt you-> Five began, before realizing it was pointless. He didn't know their language, he spoke  _english_ , not dogspeak. Five hesitated and then slowly lowered themselves to the ground, wagging their tail and twisting over to expose their throat,  _he's still a dog, surely he'll get the message. I'm no threat._

Sam's tail didn't move from between his legs, but it did begin to wag, “Oh uh, ok, a- apology accepted? I guess? If you  _are_  apologizing. Maybe you just... hit your head or something, and that's why you're acting all weird. Come on, Maxine's just over here, in the farmhouse.” He ducked nervously past Five, pausing to check they were following before leading them to the farmhouse that crouched at the heart of the settlement.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it took so long, I've been pretty busy. Also sorry if the chapter is kind of boring.  
> Please comment your thoughts, I really appreciate feedback

Maxine's makeshift hospital didn't smell quite the same as the one back at Mullins, but the sterile steel table, and the almost painful cleaning-chemical stink filled Five with relief, it was familiar and they knew what was expected of them here. They broke away from Sam's side and walked up to the table, placing their paws on the smooth surface to test the grip before leaping onto it and standing to attention the way they'd been trained.

Maxine was looking through the box Five had brought with them, which Evan had been nice enough to run over to her, but turned at the clatter of claws on steel to see the new runner five heaving themself onto the table and standing completely stiff as though waiting for inspection at a dog show. _I mean, it_ is _a military dog... Maybe its trained to do that?_ She wasn't a vet, but both vets and doctors had been forced to step out of their comfort zones during these trying times.

Sam was already chattering nervously, “I think they're hurt, they were acting really weird earlier, like lifting their paws up and waving them around and making these weird noises, maybe they hit their head? I thought they were fine but-”

Maxine cut him off gently, “Ok, they're going to be fine. Now, were-” she hesitated, “Can they... speak, like you? I mean, it obvious ”

“No, I don't think so... I mean, normal dogs don't do that, right?”

“Right, just making sure.”

She approached Five cautiously and offered a hand for the big dog to sniff, but it remained perfectly still, only looking at her from the corner of their eye.

It was strange behaviour for sure, and Maxine moved slowly in case the dog snapped at her, running her hand gently along their back. When she tried to lift their hind leg to check the paw pads for damage the dog tilted its leg back almost without prompting to make it easier. They did the same for each of their paws, and opened their mouth as soon as her fingers came near their muzzle, keeping their jaws open until she moved away.

Almost definitely trained to make vet checks easier. They even stood perfectly still when she took blood samples.

She couldn't find any damage with the dog and even found they were seemingly completely trained as she ran through all the commands she could think of and they followed them perfectly.

She certainly couldn't find any of the strange behaviour Sam had spoken of, he had told her the whole story; how weirdly Five had behaved on the short walk. Maxine was almost certain that Five was trying to communicate, she'd heard rumours of super-intelligent dogs that could communicate with their handlers through a code of sorts, and after meeting a dog who could speak perfect english, and now a dog who could understand english seemingly, that was sounding pretty damn likely.

“You were trying to talk to Sam, weren't you?”

The dog nodded. _Ok, that's a start._

“You've got some kind of language that we don't know, right?”

Another nod.

“Are you injured at all?”

Five shook their head.

“Ok, uh...” _how exactly are you meant to help with project greenshoot?_ But Sam was there, and he wasn't authorised for that kind of information. Suddenly she wondered, “What's your name? I mean, we've been calling you Five but surely you had a name at Mullins?”

Five shook their head and made a series of gestures Maxine knew had to mean _something_ but that meaning was completely foreign to her.

“So you just... Didn't have a name? That can't be right...”

Five's face was fascinatingly expressive, and she could see the frustration on it, as they seemed to be thinking carefully. After a moment, they lifted their paw and tapped it on the table five times.

“What, is Five just... what you want to be called?”

Five nodded.

 

Janine stared at the “operative” that sat wagging their tail on her kitchen floor. Or the new runner Five, according to Sam. Sure, why not. She had a radio operator that was a dog, why not an agent from the military. Sure. The dog had pulled a small booklet out of their pack and let her take it from their mouth.

It explained that their handler had been bitten and they would have to find another to send. There was a dictionary for something called “dogspeak” and instructions on the dog's care routine.

Janine flicked frantically through the dogspeak dictionary, it seemed that “Five” had a language of gestures and noises used to communicate with human handlers, but the dictionaries sorting system was painfully unhelpful for translating she found as she tried to interoperate the answers Five was giving to her questions. It was sorted by alphabetical words and not by, different kinds of gestures and noises, so she had to desperately flick through the book until she found what she was looking for for each gesture and noise the dog made, word by word.

She wondered if whoever sent the dog expected all those involved in Greenshoot to take the time to memorise the entire language. It seemed ridiculous, but it would be just as impractical to have to translate via the book.

Even the mission report for the helicopter mishap was painfully slow going. Janine contemplated dumping the responsibility for learning the language onto Sara so she could just translate, but then, would it really be practical to have to rely on one person always being available every time she needed a mission report?

It took nearly an hour to receive a very simple explanation of what Five had witnessed, and they hadn't seen much. Janine sighed as she finally put the book away, opened the kitchen door ad called Sam back, “Ok, Five. You can sleep in the comms shack with Mr Yao, and he an help you get used to your schedule.” She watched the two dogs leave, closed her door, and sat pinching the bridge of her nose, trying to fight off a headache.

 

Sam spent most of the day showing Five around Abel, which would have probably taken about ten minutes if they didn't stop every minute to talk to someone. Twenty five people didn't seem like a lot but it was about twice as many people as Five had known in their life prior to this. And most of those people didn't pet them or ask them questions without expecting answers, like “who's a good dog?” It took several seconds for Five to force their ears to sit back up after some townsperson had grabbed the sides of their face and ruffled it about leaving them stunned at the sudden assault to their personal space.

They'd eaten dinner, which had been a surprisingly flavourful event as their meal had consisted mainly of scraps which were tastier and more varied than the meals Five was used to.

They'd been looking forward to the peaceful semi-solitude of sleeping in the comms shack when Sam had admitted that he hadn't been sleeping there for ages, instead slinking off to sleep in the runners tents.

“I usually sleep in the tent with and Jody, Maggy, and Ali- uh...” Sam's tail drooped and Five felt a twinge of sympathy, remembering their handler, watching him drop as the gunshot echoed in their skull, they leaned over and gave his ear a gentle lick. He shook off his mournful expression, “they both grew up with dogs that used to sleep at the foot of their bed, and Maggie said she had a little terrier before the outbreak, they say it helps them sleep, I bet they'd love to have you in there too!”

Jody was a bit nervous, moving slowly and eyeing their large size, but she quickly warmed up and ended up sitting with an arm casually draped over their shoulders as she chattered to Sam about a few subjects. The weight of the day sent Five to sleep before the humans had even made a move to get in their sleeping bags, and though their words sounded like they were underwater, Five found it oddly soothing as they drifted off.

 

 


End file.
